Two Major Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations

1. Greek civilization (c. 500-200 BC)
2. Roman civilization (c. 200 BC - 600 CE)

Both Greeks and Romans

• rested on an agricultural base.
• elites developed and patronized the art, literature, and etc.
• cultural slavery of enemies, others
• patriarchy

Greek Heritage

• 6th~3rd century B.C. - The golden age of Greek civilization
• human-centered concept of universe (humanistic / anthropocentric)
• search for ideals, perfection (reflected in architecture, art, etc.)
• polytheistic (to explain natural world, mysteries)
• Ptomlemy= astronomy, physics
• Galen= medical knowledge
• political theory = 3 types of gov. (democracy, monarchy & oligarchy)
• philosophy - chief contribution (rationality!!)

Aristotle vs. Plato

• Each work on Epistemologies (study of what is knowledge, how can we know anything)
• Aristotle - Inductive reasoning

Knowledge comes from observation of specific phenomena

• Plato - Deductive Reasoning

Idealism - What we observe is only a reflection of a more perfect world, the model of which we hold in our minds.
Importance of our innate ideas


Roman Heritage

• Romans influenced by Greeks
• Roman influence spread over and culturally unite continental Europe
• Invented cement, bricks, and pillars AND arches and domes (huge deal!)
• Technology- road system, water transportation (aqueducts), trade routes, and etc.
• Art- new focus on individual, flaws and all (no longer ideal forms)
• Pax Romana “Peace of Rome” - famous golden age of culture brought to all Europe
• Roman Civil. -> vital link between ancient Mediterranean culture and the culture of the Middle Ages.

Gov.

• Beaurocracy (!)
• Taxes and census
• Republican w/ senate & consuls & tribunes (until Caesar-thing start)
• Creation of judicial branch to implement laws
• "Roman law" concept (law=source of all power, supreme)

Church Heritage

• Come from Judaism, then hated by both Jews and Polytheists
• Constantine Ⅰ – granted religious toleration in 312 CE
• When Roman Empire fall, church schism into Roman Catholic (thrive w/out gov) vs. Eastern Orthodox (struggle w/ remnants of gov)
• Jerome translate Bible into Vulgate, for all to read
• Augustine – concept of the original sin and duality of life (spiritual and corporeal, earthly and heavenly)

Middle Ages

PHASE ONE: Dark Ages 400-700 CE
- Instability (Germanic invasions), revert to agrarian-ism with decline of infrastructure
PHASE TWO: High Middle Ages
- consolidation, technology, population growth
- Charlemagne (Holy Roman Emperor) in 800 CE
PHASE THREE: Late Middle Ages
-Formation of French & English monarchies (state system!)

*stirrup lead to knights, eventually lead to Crusades

Important Elements of Medieval Agricultural Revolution

• Three-field farming
• Yoke
• Iron plow
• Windmill

(* more food -> pop. growth -> more cities)

The Church

• "Great Chain of Being" (hierarchy of all life)
• Incredible wealth, power and influence (all life revolve around helping church)
• Crusades bring back Graeco-Roman writings, and church becomes center of learning (clergy among few educated)
• Architecture – Gothic style, flying buttresses, and stained glasses.
• Thomas Aquinas – tried to reconcile Augustine’s faith w/ Aristotle’s reason, father of Scholasticism
• Nominalists – members of the scholastic movement, believed the two forms of knowledge existed in separate realms.

Feudalism vs. Manorialism

• Feudalism – POLITICAL, pyramid shape, work from king to vassals, downward

-pledges on loyalty and homage made by one warrior leader to another.

• Manorialism - SOCIAL, stronghold surrounded by fields, community based on serf system around lord

-farmers started to work for wealthy lord and became serfs, legally bound to the land

Towns
-Help middle class, artisans organize guilds (lead to oligarchies)
-More or less self governing, return of Roman Law
-Conflict between barter system and money, but guilds help standardize